Jo-Ann Strauss

I am a multi-faceted woman who is still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up, but has no intention of growing up too quickly. I am a mom, a wife, a media entrepreneur and enjoy the absence of routine in my life.

What is your best childhood memory?

My baby brother (he is four years younger) and I riding our BMX bikes around the neighbourhood streets – we grew up in Blackheath in the Western Cape. He had a blue one and mine was red. We would ride through puddles in the gravel roads of our hood and splash each other wet much to our amusement and my mom’s consternation.

If you had a chance for a “do-over” in life, what would you do differently?

I would probably buy a few properties that I didn’t think I could afford back then. I look at how much I’ve learnt about the property market and realise how my gut instinct was often right and my fears sometimes threw me off course. But, hindsight is always 20 20 vision, so perhaps that helped me to get into the position that I am now. I am quite risk averse and at times wish that I weren’t as careful, but I think I am finding the right balance bit by bit.

What do you feel most proud of?

My two gorgeous children – they are the centre of my husband and my universe 🙂

If you could only keep three possessions, what would they be and why?

Define possessions 😉 I think my passport as it gives me access to the world, my credit card as it gives me access to most material things and my smartphone (with a wifi connection) as it pretty much gives me the world in the palm of my hand.

What do you want your tombstone to say?

She lived before she died.

What is Modern Mommy?

Modern Mommy is a blog that was born at around the same time as our first child two years ago. Since then, it’s become a lovely little community of moms online and I hope to grow it into a platform for working moms with great business ideas and a place to empower especially single moms. It’s all a work in progress and I’m trying to give it the attention it deserves, but with a 4 month old baby and a toddler – I am just about managing to keep it together 😉

What’s your favorite kind of coffee?

I love a flat white – in particular I like the coffee in my hood – Tamboerskloof – cute place called “The Blue Café” – the medium organic roast is my best!

Anything that entails a sunset with my family followed by our bathtime ritual and then a glass of red wine with my husband (after the kids are in bed) and a roaring fire in our little fireplace. I enjoy the fact that all my days are different and that there is so much variety, but that the constant element is my little family.